It is common practice in the preparation of cured meats to treat meat with a curing agent, more particularly sodium nitrite, which may be used alone or along with sodium erythorbate. The erythorbate is believed to speed the formation of the cured color or to serve as an antioxidant.
In using current operating procedures for the manufacture of certain cured meat products, sodium nitrite levels of 140 ppm to 156 ppm are routinely used to bring about cured color development. Especially when sodium nitrite levels lower than that specified in the current manufacturing procedures are used, the initial cured color which develops becomes susceptible to fading, and undesirable discoloration of the product occurs during storage and upon exposure to display case lights.
Accordingly, we have set about to discover new processes or alterations in the ingredients involved in the curing procedure which will facilitate the development of the bright pink color which has been associated with the best quality of cured meat and which will stabilize this color so that the color is maintained for an extended period of time, even with initial reduced levels of sodium nitrite, and even when the product is exposed to lights in display cases.